Darkroom in laundry room?

[Ralph Miyashiro]

I need some advice. I am finally getting serious about building a darkroom. My first consideration is my laundry room, of course it's got electricity, water and a drain. It is also light tight as I currently use it for my "darkened room", loading film, contact printing but no enlarging. I am worried about dust from the clothes dryer. Am I asking for a load of frustration using this room for enlarging? When I contact print I wipe the surfaces down and the room doesn't seem any dustier than any other part of the house (maybe even cleaner) and I don't have dust problems with the contacts, but what about enlarging? Any one else have the enlarger in the laundry room? My other option is building a shed outside the main house. I can get electricity and cold water (no hot) out there, but no drain. Please advise.

[Jon Shiu]

I would say just do it. Learn how to make sure there is no dust on your negative and you will be fine. We had a darkroom in a carpeted bedroom for a few years and had no problems.

Jon

[vinny]

my friend Per Volquartz had his darkroom in the laundry room and I don't recall seeing any issues with his prints. Keep your stuff clean, maybe don't run the dryer while you're printing. Hell, put up a clothes line and sell the dryer. Tell your wife it got stolen.

[Mark Stahlke]

Keep the dryer's lint screen clean to minimize the dust in the room.

[jermaineB]

my friend Per Volquartz had his darkroom in the laundry room and I don't recall seeing any issues with his prints. Keep your stuff clean, maybe don't run the dryer while you're printing. Hell, put up a clothes line and sell the dryer. Tell your wife it got stolen.

Lol! Funniest thing I've read all day cause I thought about the same thing but I'd die laughing with the expression my wife would give me if I told her that!

[Jim Edmond]

My darkroom is in the laundry and furnace room. I held off a long time in building it there, but it was the only space available. Dust hasn't been a problem.

[Dan Henderson]

I wonder if the humidity often present in a laundry room might somehow offset the dust from the dryer. I would be more worried about the dust getting on my wet negatives after development, but presumably you have already fought that battle.

[Sylvester Graham]

I use my bedroom as a darkroom at night. Good prints are possible in unlikely, less than industrial clean room conditions. A few photographers had darkroom alcoves in other purpose rooms. Weston had a single lightbulb enlarger. I've even heard of folks developing film in a river in a rainforest at night during vietnam.

[Pawlowski6132]

Dryers will produce dust in the air. Period. What's your tolerance for dust on your equipment? Is the room well ventilated? Is it small enough to run an air purifier??

[Brian Ellis]

I used a laundry room as a darkroom for about five years. It worked fine, I didn't have any greater dust problems in it than I've had anywhere else. I didn't dry negatives in the darkroom, I hung them in a bathroom to dry.

My laundry room/darkroom had no real ventilation. I set up a fan on the end of the room opposite the door, blowing over the chemical trays that I put on the washer and dryer. I kept the fan on all the time and kept the door open except when the room had to be dark. The idea was for the fan to blow the chemical fumes out the open door. It apparently worked, I'm still alive. You might be surprised at how little of the time a darkroom actually has to be dark.